Vanitas/Relationships
- 1 Noé Archiviste
- 2 Vanitas of the Blue Moon
- 5 Amelia Ruth
- 6 Parks Orlok
- 7 Roland Fortis
- 8 Doctor Moreau
- 10 Manet and Nox
- 11 References
Noé Archiviste [ ]
Vanitas has a strange relationship with Noé in which they are simultaneously best friends and frequently annoyed at each other. Vanitas behaves in an incredibly contrary way around Noé—begging the vampire to team up with him one minute and telling him to leave the next. The two have had plenty of arguments, as Vanitas is extremely protective of Noé but hates it when Noé tries to protect him (despite asking Noé to be his shield in the first place); but despite this Vanitas seems to genuinely care about Noé in a roundabout way. He won’t admit that he likes Noé, but Vanitas seems to enjoy his company and trusts him.
Vanitas and Noé are often in tune with each other’s emotions— this is usually more evident on Noé’s side of things but Vanitas is often able to calm Noé down when the latter is angry or upset, and is frequently seen saving Noé from visions of the past and from Naenia.
Such understanding is clear during their fight in the amusement park, when Noé takes notice of how lonely Vanitas truly is, and how he believes loneliness means freedom. Despite the frantic situation they were pulled into, Noé is able to regain his senses and realizes that Vanitas was acting mostly out of fear instead of anger, and greatly blames himself for trying to force the human into giving him his blood. Their bond is so strong that he manages to snap Vanitas out of his hypnotic trance, reminding him that is not just any vampire, but his friend. Noé then vows to never set Vanitas "free", meaning that he will never leave Vanitas alone.
Vanitas of the Blue Moon [ ]
At a surface level, Vanitas seems to despise Luna— he repeatedly states that he wants revenge on Vanitas of the Blue Moon and during many of his initial flashbacks he seems to despise the vampire. However, Vanitas and Luna seem to have been closer than Vanitas might want others to think. While feverish, Vanitas says “I didn’t really hate you, Lu...”, which seems to be a reference to Luna. He lets Luna hug him and Luna often comes to mind when Vanitas is curing malnomen. Luna was a parental figure in Vanitas’s life, as they were in Misha’s.
Dante works for Vanitas on a contractual basis and also acts as his primary information broker, obtaining rare information and charging exorbitant prices for it. He refuses to do work for Vanitas that does not involve payment. The two are frequently seen yelling insults at each other, communicating in a disrespectful manner, and each refer to the other with an insulting nickname; Dante refers to Vanitas as a "Quack," often used as a term toward physicians accused of fraudulent and ignorant practice of medical skill, while Vanitas calls Dante "Baldy" as a curse to force his hair to thin faster. [1]
The two bicker semi constantly, but do genuinely care for each other as more than business partners. Dante is easily able to see through Vanitas’s flippant attitude. Vanitas was the first human to ever accept Dante and see him as equal to humans and vampires (even if it was because he just hates everyone equally) and Dante, as many times as he states that Dhams only care about other Dhams, will never forget that. Despite that, Vanitas sometimes seems to undervalue how much Dante values him, and often goes as far as threatening Dante’s life to get what he wants.
Despite all of this they seem to be good friends, eating dinner together at a cafe. Dante knows a solid amount about Vanitas’s current life, and jokes about Vanitas and Noé being in a romantic relationship a few times. [2] [3]
Vanitas initially seemed to be toying with Jeanne during their interactions, messing with her emotions and being intentionally abrasive to get a reaction. However, as time goes on Vanitas seems to display a more gentle side of himself around Jeanne. During their night in Gévaudan, Vanitas tries to push Jeanne away by flirting with her, expecting her usual negative reaction. When Jeanne isn’t put off by this, Vanitas seems to get more and more upset as the night wears on. Vanitas began his relationship with Jeanne almost entirely due to her amusing reactions to him, and he becomes very upset when she starts to break this trend.
During their time in Gévaudan, Vanitas starts to genuinely fall in love with Jeanne when she displays a genuine cheerfulness and strength that he hadn’t seen in her before. He is exceptionally upset by his growing attraction, and truly believes that Jeanne could never fall for a person like him.
Amelia Ruth [ ]
After being cured of her malnomen, Amelia and Vanitas have been on friendly terms. She is very grateful for his help, and even offered a token of gratitude in return for curing her, although he declined it. [4] She cares about him and respects his boundaries, although she does enjoy teasing him a little bit about his softer side. Amelia seems to understand Vanitas' personality well enough, reading past his grumpiness and recognizing his own special way of apologizing. She also shows concern for Vanitas' friendship with Noé, keeping track of their fights and reconciliations.
Parks Orlok [ ]
Orlok doesn't like or trust Vanitas, choosing to keep him under surveillance for the time being.
Roland Fortis [ ]
Roland and Vanitas have a love/hate relationship— love from Roland, hate from Vanitas. Vanitas is disturbed by Roland’s self- righteous pity towards him, and tells Noé that he dislikes people like that within moments of first meeting Roland. Vanitas treats Roland like a necessary (if annoying) ally, and is frequently seen trying to escape from Roland’s hugs and hide from the Chasseur. Vanitas does seem to trust Roland when the latter gets serious, and even speaks to Roland and Olivier about Jeanne.
Doctor Moreau [ ]
While a young Vanitas was training to become a Chasseur, he was kidnapped and given him the name “No. 69”. During his time as Moreau’s test subject Vanitas saw many vampires come in and get torturously experimented on by Moreau and his fellow researchers. Vanitas never escaped because he feared Moreau would kidnap another child and experiment on them in his place. Moreau decided to inject Vanitas and Mikhail with the blood of the Vampire of the Blue Moon in an attempt to make the boys into pseudo-kin of the blue moon and open the Books of Vanitas, leaving both boys traumatized for life.
When they meet again in the Catacombes years later, Vanitas puts on a fake smile and pretends to be delighted in seeing him again, claiming to be Moreau's supporter in order to get information out of him. Despite the torture he inflicted on Vanitas in the past, Moreau claims that Vanitas was an excellent test subject, complimenting him and even going as far as crying after the boy was taken away years ago. He also seems to somewhat coddle Vanitas when the latter apologizes, hugging him and saying he's not the least bit angry.
In spite of his misleadingly affectionate gestures, Moreau only cares about Vanitas' use as a test subject — only praising him for being a cooperative guinea pig — not caring if he was suffering or in pain, going as far as asking for one of Vanitas' eyeballs for research. All things considered, Moreau has always been more than willing to risk Vanitas' health and life to reach his goals. For Vanitas, Moreau is someone he only needed to gather information on Vampire disappearances at the time, and he had planned to kill the doctor as soon as he was done.
Mikhail [ ]
Mikhail and Vanitas were both Doctor Moreau’s test subjects as children. When Misha first arrived at the lab, Vanitas was told to watch over the boy by Moreau. Vanitas and Mikhail quickly became close, with Misha calling Vanitas his “big brother” and sharing a bed with him in their cell. Upon hearing that Mikhail would be part of a deadly experiment in the lab, Vanitas told Moreau that he would willingly participate in the experiment instead of Misha. Vanitas collapsed and fell ill right after escaping the lab with Misha and Luna, which Luna suggested was due to him finally relaxing after spending so much time on edge trying to protect Mikhail. At some point during their time with Luna, Misha and Vanitas promised to stay together forever.
After Luna’s death, Vanitas, believing Mikhail was dead as well, left and began his quest for “revenge”. Vanitas frequently has visions of Misha admonishing him, telling him that he broke their promise and he caused Luna and Misha’s deaths. Vanitas is shocked to learn that Mikhail is alive and has kidnapped Dominique to seek out Noé. He refuses to call Mikhail by his nickname and is furious to learn that Misha has been trying to bring Luna back to life.
Manet and Nox [ ]
Both siblings seem to dislike Vanitas, most likely since the latter is both a human and quite disrespectful during their encounters. However, Vanitas seems mostly neutral towards them.
References [ ]
- ↑ Volume 1 Omake: "Tell me, Doctor Vanitas"
- ↑ Mémoire 24: Forêt d'argent
- ↑ Entracte: Jours Bruyants
- ↑ The Case Study of Vanitas Vol. 5 Bonus pages
- 2 List of Characters (The Case Study of Vanitas)
- 3 Noé Archiviste